A Revolution in American Health Care

No matter where you stand politically, you can’t deny that the current system of American healthcare does not work for everybody… especially those of us with chronic disease. I’m sure the majority of us who have IBD and are fortunate enough to have private health insurance, either covered by your employer or another family member, have at one time or another been worried about their coverage.

Will my insurance company drop me if I have surgery again? How can I afford my treatment once I exceed my lifetime/annual coverage amount? If I switch jobs, will I still be able to get health insurance? How am I going to pay for COBRA if my children are sick and don’t have adequate coverage by the time they can no longer be a dependent on my insurance?

With the new healthcare bill that was signed into law last week, many of these questions will be answered. This is not to say that the healthcare system will be perfect, but it helps regulate the industry to not dismiss those of us that truly need the financial support and the guarantee that healthcare will be available when we need it the most.

There are many websites out there that lay out the changes that will occur over the next few years and how passage of this bill will affect you financially, reflected through how your insurance premiums and income tax will be affected.

Here are a few of the big changes that will hopefully alleviate a lot of the big questions that those of us with chronic disease and private insurance face:

Insurance companies will not be able to drop people’s coverage when they get sick.

Lifetime coverage will be eliminated and annual limits will be restricted.

Children cannot be excluded due to having a pre-existing condition, until 2014 when no one can be denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition.

Young adults can be covered on their parents’ plans until they are 26.

Now if you don’t have private insurance, here are the things you can expect to see happen with these new changes:

Medicaid will be expanded with lower premiums due to federal subsidies.

If you haven’t had insurance for six months, and you can’t afford or don’t qualify for insurance because of a pre-existing condition, you may be eligible for new federal “high risk” insurance starting this summer.

In 2014 (theoretically), states will open health insurance exchanges, so that people who don’t have insurance can select from competing plans. This competition will allow for lower premiums, but this remains controversial since no one is quite sure how this will work yet.

Everyone will be required to have health insurance by 2016, or you will pay a fine based on your income.

Now, before you start commenting: I fully realize that a lot of people don’t agree on the politics of healthcare reform. There are various opinions from all different sides — many people don’t want the government involved, don’t want public money going toward healthcare, or don’t think that this reform plan does enough to solve the healthcare problems in this country. Everyone is entitled to their own political opinion, but if you do choose to comment — I encourage you to leave the politics aside and focus on the issues of health and insurance coverage, not the politics behind it.